Along the Winding Road
by castlefreak1213
Summary: A drive through the countryside. Quick one-shot.


She'd always found the backseat of the car to be more exciting than the front. A side effect of growing up traveling by taxi.

There was something about watching the world go by from the view of a supporting role. How things approached so slowly and yet passed so quickly, how you could see for miles while just passing through.

She loved the way the lanes of the highway changed every few miles to accommodate for the changing conditions.

The road itself was constantly evolving and regressing, just as those who traveled it.

They were long past the city, heading to the ocean-side estate for a few weeks of much deserved R & R.

She was starting on that early, idly watching the fields of green and gray pass alongside the interstate.

* * *

He watched her from the rearview mirror. Safe driving be damned, there were more important things to focus on than the other vacationers behind them. Like the beautiful woman in the back seat of his sedan.

The evening sun cast half her profile aglow in waves of amber and gold. She was always radiant, but the sun's rays provided a new level of unattainable beauty he hadn't known existed until that moment.

Chestnut curls framed her face, obstructing his view. It was lighter now that the August sun had taken its toll. They fell in soft waves, but allowed him a glimpse at just enough of the face he'd spent nearly a decade studying and falling in love with. The face he'd memorized every detail of, but was constantly in awe of.

He was grateful her sunglasses were abandoned as the sun began to set, her eyes captivating. She'd mentioned, one night tangled beneath satin layers, how his were like a vast ocean, deep blue and full of knowledge and adoration, but he'd never been able to find adjectives to describe hers.

And he never would.

It was impossible.

And he loved it.

They were a constant mixture of brown and green, changing based on atmosphere and emotion. He had made a habit of cataloguing the changes, first for Nikki Heat, but soon to satisfy his own curiosity. They had been dark mahogany the night they first met, brooding and mysterious. Green and brown blended together when they had traveled to Los Angeles.

They were hazel in the cemetery, as he watched them roll back into her skull.

His favorite had been after their first night together. Golden and piercing, she was glowing from head to foot, but her eyes reflected a pure admiration he never wanted to lose.

That was his favorite, until one Tuesday evening when he found himself kneeling beside her with a small velvet box in his hand. Her eyes were red around the edges, but in them he could see the hopefulness for a future together swimming in the olive irises.

He couldn't even find words to describe how they looked as she promised him for better or worse. All that came to mind when he found the color again was _home_.

Now they were the most fascinating ochre with enough green to remind him of their surroundings.

They left him at a loss for words.

Richard Castle, best-selling novelist, reduced to silence.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

She snaked her hand around the side of his chair closest to the door and rubbed small circles across his broad shoulder. She caught his gaze in the mirror and gave a soft smile that sent his heart leaping from its cage in his chest. Her eyes turned downward and his followed, abandoning the mirror and searching through the backseat only to find -

Five tiny digits wrapped tightly around one of her own.

He hated that he needed to watch the road and drive his wife and newborn daughter through the endless expanse before them. He wanted nothing more than to capture this moment forever, to brand it to his memories and never let it go.

Her eyes sought his out in the mirror once more as a shy smile enveloped her face. Her mouth moved silently through the sedan, three syllables flowing effortlessly off her tongue.

_I love you_.

* * *

_Thank you all for being wonderful._

_Please let me know your thoughts. _


End file.
